


With A Girl Like You

by likethenight



Category: Boat that Rocked | Pirate Radio (2009)
Genre: Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, F/F, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, unlikely friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25496155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likethenight/pseuds/likethenight
Summary: There’s nothing more lonely than being known by your reputation alone, and being expected to live up to it every moment of every day. Which is why Midnight Mark and Felicity end up being pretty much best friends aboard Radio Rock.
Relationships: "Midnight" Mark & Felicity, Felicity (Boat that Rocked)/Margaret (Boat that Rocked)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	With A Girl Like You

**Author's Note:**

> I rewatched _The Boat That Rocked_ tonight and could not stop thinking about what if Mark and Felicity were actually best mates, because good god it is tiring having to live up to your reputation and everyone's expectations all the damn time. And then this happened. 
> 
> Mark (in this fic at least) reminds me of someone I used to know a long, long time ago, and although he is absolutely never going to see this, PW, this one is for you, mate. :D
> 
> Title (but not the sentiment of the song, because this is a fic about a totally platonic relationship) from the Troggs song which appears on the soundtrack.
> 
> Kudos and comments are of course not obligatory, but every single one absolutely makes my day, so if you enjoy this story and leave one or the other (or both!), you will be making me very happy indeed and I thank you in advance from the bottom of my tired little heart. <3

There’s nothing more lonely than being known by your reputation alone, and being expected to live up to it every moment of every day. Which is why, after a little while on board Radio Rock, Midnight Mark and Felicity found themselves gravitating towards one another, although they didn’t quite realise it at first. Felicity was usually up early sorting out breakfast - a boat full of men, always expecting to be fed at every hour of the day and night and not a one of them capable of doing anything about it himself - and Mark would be finishing his show, coming down off the high of playing music and playing the character, barely saying anything to his listeners in the dark of the night, but everything he did say spoken in that too-cool-for-everything purr. 

They started out by meeting in the galley and having a cigarette while Bob set sail in the Dawn Treader, and not talking much, but after a while it was pretty clear that they were more or less best friends. It wasn’t as though either of them had anyone else to lay claim to that title, after all. 

They were the most unlikely pair of friends, and that was probably why they worked so well together. Felicity was the only woman who didn’t want anything from Mark, and Mark was pretty much the only man on the boat who never tried anything on with Felicity, even though she was absolutely not interested in any of them. It was a relief, for Mark, not to have to pretend to be interested, and for Felicity not to have to reiterate for the millionth time that she wasn’t interested was a blessed respite.

“One day,” said Felicity, deep in the middle of the night once, while Bob was playing _Nights In White Satin_ , “I’m going to found a lesbian commune and we’ll buy a boat and we’ll play our own damn music. And the only rule is going to be: no bloody men on board!” 

Mark chuckled and took a drag on his cigarette. “But you’d make an exception for me, right?”

“No!” said Felicity indignantly, and then thought about it and reconsidered. “Only if you promised not to shag anyone.”

“Well, I thought the whole point of it was that everyone would be lesbians,” said Mark with a wry smile. “So none of them would _want_ to shag me.”

“I don’t know how you’d survive,” said Felicity, not as sharply as her words might have implied.

“Oh, believe me, it’d be a rest cure,” Mark grinned. 

Felicity rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself,” she said, not unkindly.

“I’m trying to,” said Mark. “Not easy when everyone expects you to be permanently up for a shag.”

“If only,” said Felicity. “I _am_ permanently up for a shag, and there is _literally nobody_ on this sodding boat that I would like to do that with, and there never is.”

“Not even me?” grinned Mark, already knowing the answer, and Felicity rolled her eyes again.

“Not even you, even if you do have lovely hair and beautiful legs,” she said. “You’re just not properly equipped.”

“Do you have any idea how refreshing it is to be told that?” said Mark, and then they both dissolved into laughter. 

“All right, you can come and visit, but you can dream on if you think we’d let you near the broadcasting booth,” said Felicity. “You won’t exactly be appealing to our target audience.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I’m sure I can pull off a show. A bit of Joan Baez, Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw,” said Mark. “A few Wall of Sound girl groups, that sort of thing?”

“There is so much more out there,” said Felicity, “and you will never discover it because you are a _man_.”

“Oh, some things are inaudible to all but women?” Mark laughed, and Felicity punched him in the arm, gently.

“No, just that you’ll be busy until the end of time listening to all your man-groups and you’ll never notice the women making just as much amazing music.”

“Try me,” said Mark. 

Which is how they came to start exchanging records, and how Mark’s late-night playlist came to expand a little to include some lesser-known female artists.

Later, after the boat sank and they’d been rescued, and Mark had managed to extricate himself from the clutches of the very attentive nurses who had rescued him, he met up with Felicity and Margaret in a café in Harwich before they all went their separate ways; the others were in a pub up the road, but Mark and Felicity’s friendship had always existed apart from the others, and they’d go and join in for a pint later. 

“Still want to start that lesbian commune pirate radio station?” he asked around a cigarette, leaning over to light one for Felicity and another for Margaret, and feeling obscurely gratified that Margaret took the gesture on face value and didn’t make eyes at him one bit; her eyes were clearly for Felicity alone, and Mark couldn’t help a smile at the warm feeling that gave him.

“I think I might like a few weeks on dry land first,” said Felicity, taking a long drag on her cigarette to calm her nerves. “And besides, I haven’t the money yet.”

“Don’t worry,” said Margaret, “I’ve got some friends who would absolutely love to join in.”

And so it was that, in the later months of 1967, even though Radio 1 had begun to broadcast rock and pop music, a small ship, crewed entirely by women, sailed out to a carefully-chosen position in the North Sea, just outside British waters, and began to broadcast the sort of music that wasn’t being catered to by the official channels. And the pirate radio story began all over again.

(And if Midnight Mark occasionally made an appearance, moonlighting from his late-night slot on Radio 1, it was generally accepted that he was forgiven for being a man. Mostly on account of his lovely hair, of course, but also because unlike pretty much every other male DJ, he was quite happy to play a whole show of female artists, and not talk over the music. And if it got him more female attention when he returned to shore - well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?)

**Author's Note:**

> Historical accuracy note: _Nights In White Satin_ wasn't released until November 1967, by which time Radio 1 was up and running, and in the movie timeline, Radio Rock was well and truly sunk. However, it's in the movie, and it fitted the moment, so I make no apologies.
> 
> I am old enough that my dad was a student when Radio 1 first started broadcasting on 30 September 1967, their first song being _Flowers In The Rain_ by The Move. Whenever either Radio 1 or that song are mentioned, my dad has to point out that that was the first song played, and if I have had to live with it for the last *mumblemumble* years, now you do too! If you don't know the song, it's worth checking out. 
> 
> Many of the original pirate radio DJs from Radio Caroline (the station on which Radio Rock is based) went on to become DJs for Radio 1, and I think Mark would have been one of them, in this timeline. Meanwhile, [Radio Caroline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Caroline) is still broadcasting, via digital radio these days, but when I was growing up in East Anglia in the 1980s I used to listen to it on AM medium wave radio occasionally. So this is a subject rather close to my heart!
> 
> And one last thing: there is a playlist on Spotify featuring every song that appears on the soundtrack [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2eashNiwZog6WGdW3sYNLK?si=TdLtPQI9Tu2TlWYBSoVi-A). Well worth checking out, because it's chock-full of classics. I didn't compile it, but I was very pleased to find it earlier this evening!


End file.
